The Owl and the Pussy-Cat - Poems | Academy of American Poets Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization. browse poems & poets sign up to receive a new poem-a-day in your inbox sign up poem About this poet The British poet and painter known for his absurd wit, Edward Lear was born on May 12, 1812 and began his career as an artist at age 15. His father, a stockbroker of Danish origins, was sent to debtor's prison when Lear was thirteen and the young Lear was forced to earn a living. Lear quickly gained recognition for his work and in 1832 was hired by the London Zoological Society to execute illustrations of birds.

In the same year, the Earl of Derby invited Lear to reside at his estate; Lear ended up staying on until 1836. His first book of poems, A Book of Nonsense (1846) was composed for the grandchildren of the Derby household. Around 1836 Lear decided to devote himself exclusively to landscape painting (although he continued to compose light verse). Between 1837 and 1847 Lear traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia. After his return to England, Lear's travel journals were published in several volumes as The Illustrated Travels of a Landscape Painter. Popular and respected in his day, Lear's travel books have largely been ignored in the twentieth century. Rather, Lear is remembered for his humorous poems, such as "The Owl and the Pussycat," and as the creator of the form and meter of the modern limerick. Like his younger peer Lewis Carroll, Lear wrote many deeply fantastical poems about imaginary creatures, such as "The Dong with the Luminous Nose." His books of humorous verse also include Nonsense Songs (1871) and Laughable Lyrics (1877).

Lear died on January 29, 1888 at the age of 76. Although the subject and form of his works varies greatly, all of Lear's poems can be characterized by his irreverent view of the world; Lear poked fun at everything, including himself in "By Way of a Preface." Many critics view Lear's devotion to the ridiculous as a method for dealing with or undermining the all-pervasive orderliness and industriousness of Victorian society. Regardless of impetus, the humor of Lear's poems has proved irrefutably timeless. BEDTIME-STORY CLASSIC: The Owl and the Pussycat The Owl and the Pussy-Cat The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea In a beautiful pea-green boat: They took some honey, Wrapped up in a five-pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, "O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, What a beautiful Pussy you are!" Contemporary Illustrator: Donna L. Derstine Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl, How charmingly sweet you sing! Oh!

let us be married; too long we have tarried: But what shall we do for a ring?" They sailed away, for a year and a day, To the land where the bong-tree grows; And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood, With a ring at the end of his nose, His nose, With a ring at the end of his nose. "Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will." So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand on the edge of the sand They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, They danced by the light of the moon. The Owl and the Pussycat - 1871 - by Edward Lear About the Author:EDWARD LEAR - b1812 London, England--d.1888,Italy The twentieth child of Jeremiah Lear, a London stockbroker, and his wife Ann, Lear grew up to become a prolific writer as well as a talented artist of both landscapes and birds .

Lear also gave drawing lessons to Queen Victoria of England. Lear was particularly enchanted with nonsense poetry, and devoted a number of his books to collections of such poems as this; Portrait by Wilhelm Marstrand There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!' Lear is perhaps best known for his whimsical poem, The Owl and the Pussycat. Edward Lear had begun to pen the sequel, The Children of The Owl and the Pussycat, but sections of the poem still remained incomplete at the time of his death in 1888. The portion that was complete, was published posthumously (meaning, after his death) in 1938. It begins; The Children of the Owl and the Pussycat Our mother was the Pussy-cat, our father was the Owl, And so we're partly little beasts and partly little fowl, The brothers of our family have feathers and they hoot, While all the sisters dress in fur and have long tails to boot. The Edward Lear website will let you learn more about this talented individual.

About the Illustrator: Donna L. Derstine The Owl and the Pussycat by: Donna L. Derstine (1959 - ) A painter in the American Primitive Style, Donna grew up in rural Buck's County, Pennsylvania where the countryside reflects an early American vista with stone farmhouses and barns, rolling pastures and working farms. Her mother instilled a creative sensibility in viewing the world and that influence along with the artist's love of animals and nature, became woven into her art at an early age. Donna's art can be found in many commercial art galleries . This charming image would be a delightful addition to a child's room. VOCABULARY: Antique Words: "runcible" The term runcible appears in English for the first time in E. Lear's nonsense verse. As the Oxford English Dictionary notes, the word has taken on a life of its own.The Oxford English Dictionary2 on CD-ROM © Copyright Oxford University Press 1994 provides this definition and citations: runcible, adjective. A nonsense word used by Edward Lear in runcible cat, hat, etc., and esp.

in runcible spoon, in later use applied to a kind of fork used for pickles, etc., curved like a spoon and having three broad prongs of which one has a sharp edge. E. Lear 1871 Owl & Pussy-Cat in Nonsense Songs They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon. five-pound note: This is money. The Owl and the Pussycat took some money along with them to buy things when they traveled. Think of it like a five dollar bill. Here are two versions of an English Five Pound Note. The one on the left is from 1935. The one on the right is a more recent bill which has Queen Elizabeth of England on the front , and on the reverse side is The Duke of Wellington b.1769 - d.1852 . Our thanks to Ben Mottram from the U.K. for providing the 1935 version. The Owl and the Pussycat Math The Cat Logic Activity Page has word problems that really make you think. Use your mind to concentrate. Try to choose the right answer to complete each sentence.

Science Look closely at the pages of the book. There is a tiny sea horse that swims beneath the pea-green boat. Did you know that the male sea horse carries babies in his pouch? To learn more about these amazing fish visit NOVA Online/Kingdom of the Sea horse . At the American Museum of Natural History's Online Field Journal, you can compare sea shells . Write your ideas on paper. Then share your thoughts with your teacher and friends. Social Studies Around the globe, people say "cat" in different ways. Go to The World of Cats Activity Page to practice saying "cat" in other languages. Edward Lear was a poet and an artist. He wrote The Owl and the Pussycat as a nonsense song for young children in the 1800's. You can read about his life and his work at the Edward Lear Home Page . Cats are the world's most favorite pet. Visit the Cats! Wild to Mild site at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to learn the history of our feline friends. Can you name any machines used to explore the deep parts of our world's oceans? The "Bathysphere" was the first Deep Sea Machine.

Recently, the "Nautile" recovered artifacts from a famous sunken ship, the Titanic. Look at photos as you read information about Deep Sea Machines of the past and present. Top Music/Art/Drama Print Jan Brett's Coloring Page with the owl and the pussycat, tropical flowers, a sea horse and more. The Owl and the Pussycat | Storynory The Owl and the Pussycat Download 00:00 / 00:00 Edward Lear first published this charming piece of nonsense in 1871 as part of his book Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets. It features the word “runcible” which he made up. By Edward Lear Read by Natasha for Storynory I The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, ‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, What a beautiful Pussy you are!’ II Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!

How charmingly sweet you sing! O let us be married! Too long we have tarried: But what shall we do for a ring?’ They sailed away, for a year and a day, To the land where the Bong-tree grows And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood With a ring at the end of his nose, His nose, With a ring at the end of his nose. III ‘Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?’ Said the Piggy, ‘I will.’ So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, They danced by the light of the moon. — This romantic “nonsense” by Edward Lear is a classic of children’s literature. Its lilting rhythm has a wonderful calming effect on the senses. It even works on crying babies! Duration 2.35 We draw on the Victorian poets whose verse is still fresh and packed with nonsense, morals, and atmospherics.

More like this… Storynory Social Follow us on Facebook and Twitter if you are 13 years old or over. Waking Beauty : is she for real? Princess Talia is a brilliant and beautiful student at Westerly College, Oxford. Her snooty manners and extravagant clothes put off many people, but the down-to-earth Sally is drawn to her. What will you make of Princess Talia? Does she have magical powers as some people believe? A print book by Storynory. Buy the book on Amazon etc Storynory Podcast We draw on the Victorian poets whose verse is still fresh and packed with nonsense, morals, and atmospherics. More like this… Leave a Reply Name i think this poem is wonderful, please can u make more because my class luv ur stories Laura — March 4, 2006 parker burns joey — April 30, 2015 It is not cool. Brittney — May 15, 2015 Kimberley from Portmore Jamaica loves “The Owl and the Pussycat” i love this peom it lets me laugh, when I was sad.

I share it with my class mates in jamaica, it was fun. Could you have a part 2 to this peom, please. Kimberley — March 8, 2006 Hello Laura and Kimberley, I’m really glad you like the “Owl and the Pussycat”. Unfortunately, I don’t think Edward Lear wrote a “Part Two”. We will do another poem soon, and hope you like it as much. Bertie i love you and the storys and whont more storys for me and my class cloe — March 17, 2006 nice,good reading and want some more. patricia — April 6, 2006 i iove you and your storys and some more. patricia — April 6, 2006 For those of you who like the Owl & the Pussycat, Natasha will be reading more poems soon. Bertie — April 6, 2006 I loved your poem p.s.:howdid you turn into a frog❗‼ Jessica???

— March 24, 2016 edmund learunfortunatly wrote part of part 2 of the owl and the pussy cat.lear never finished it..the gist of it was the cat died and their mixed brood he refers to is left unfinished.we have been spared this desecration by his timely death..thank you patrick — April 12, 2006 I really like your page and the poem. In fact I have illustrated this beautiful poem as well as others. I would like to share these images with you. Please visit my page, “Where The Bong Tree Grows”. The Art of J.D.Gibson J.D. — May 19, 2006 Hi J.D, I can’t find your website “where the Bong Tree Grows” could you let us have the URL address? Bertie — May 19, 2006 I’m sorry about that. I had to change some things around, but I think it’s OK now. The URL is: http//jdgibsonart.blogspot.com I’m new here but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Let me know when you get there.

Thanks, J.D. P.S. I love your page! J.D. — May 24, 2006 JD – I still can’t find your site. Please just drop an email, Bertie@storynory.com and let’s get in touch. Bertie — May 28, 2006 hi! i am lynn. i really think the poem was GREAT! have you got more romantic poems or stories or articles? lynn — July 14, 2006 it was ok but need to make it fun ms — September 14, 2006 i like this poem very much i love poems very muchhhhhhhh praneeth — January 2, 2007 think the owl and the pussy cat is complete nonsense charlie — January 16, 2008 I thought the owl and the pussy cat was very funny oliver — January 16, 2008 I love it because it is a real twist in nature. heather — January 16, 2008 I love it.it is realy funny.I love the discribing of the boat and ilike the word bong tree.

corbbi — January 16, 2008 The discription is great its funny to,and I think Edward Lear had a good imagination. Harry — January 16, 2008 The story was alright and funny to,and i liked it. joseph — January 16, 2008 The owl and the pussy cat is a great poem because its very funny and the discription is great. Harry — January 16, 2008 I like it because its very funny and it has alot of describing words in it and it has very good text in, and it is suitable for all style of age.

bethany — January 16, 2008 I like it because it is funny and good for little children caitlin — January 16, 2008 It is very funny and very descriptive the nonsense words are very weird kane — January 16, 2008 I love the owl and the pussycat because the nonsense words make it funny tied in with the rhythm.Also it has funny words like Bong-Tree and Piggy-Wig Lauren — January 16, 2008 I liked this poem because the nonsence rhymes make it good for children and adults to read! Also it has funny words to intreast young readers like ‘bong-tree’ Emma — January 16, 2008 I loved the owl and the pussycat because of the nonsese word and the rhymic pattern.Also I liked the words liked Bong-Tree and Piggy-Wig. Lauren — January 16, 2008 i think it is very relaxing also very funny,very also liked the rhymes at he start they were cool.

james — January 17, 2008 I think it was a tounge-tying twister of rhyming words and i think it is also very funny. oliver — January 17, 2008 I love,it because it has some wonderful adjectives and nonsence. Stephanie — January 17, 2008 I like the poam because it is a nonsence and funny! Emily — January 17, 2008 I think it is very funny I like the story. cam — January 17, 2008 I realy liked the poem because it has a good rythme and I the use of rhyming nathan — January 17, 2008 i like the poem because it is funny and i like the the word piggy wig and bong trees ellie — January 17, 2008 I think it is very funny it is also suitable for children. I also like the charactors and the way you set the story out!

danielle — January 17, 2008 I love this poem I is a good story aswell I think this would make a good story for children learning to read. Emily — January 17, 2008 it was great it was mega funny reuben — January 17, 2008 it was a realy funny nonsense poem I liked the owl and the pussycat it was very funny. Nicola — January 17, 2008 we think it is very romantic poem and we liked the word piggy-wig! lizzy and emma — January 18, 2008 We like the poem because we like the word Bong tree and it is very nonsense Bethany and Rachael — January 18, 2008 this poem is a fuuny one joseph — January 20, 2008 the owl and the pussycat is a great discripted poem and is a nonsence poem and is really got alout of ryming words.

joseph — January 20, 2008 I think this poem is cool Emily — January 23, 2008 my students loved this rhyme. Anonymous — February 4, 2008 Princess Emma — September 9, 2009 hello beartie this is a very nice poem i know it off by heart from kanako after 78 yrs now I know the story- cool vern — December 7, 2009 in my opinion the story is very boring. i don´t understand this story! Anonymous — December 8, 2009 wat,s good alexis — February 22, 2010 I love this poem I have known it since I was very young and now Im teaching it to my children. I often say it at work, and watch the look on my workmates faces they wonder how I can remember it. I LOVE IT> XXX SAMANTHA.b. — October 14, 2010 It happens to be one of my favourite poems. I teach it to every batch ofclass 4 students. I never tire of it.

Theresa — November 9, 2010 nice poem…I teach the poem many times…my students like it.. angel — December 1, 2010 Very Nice book. Very Deatailed Anonymous — December 17, 2010 Bertie,your poem is so wonderful.Maybe it was rather short,but this is going to be my most favorite poem.I feel a bit sorry because I didn’t download this poem,but,His Royal Highness Prince Bertie the Frog,I wish may the things that like the owl and the pussycat does happen to His Royal Highness Prince Bertie and Her Royal Loveliness Princess Beatrice.I’d feel a bit sad when listening to the story ‘Bertie on Holiday’,when Bertie turned back to a prince.But when the wicked queen turned him into a frog again,and this time she do kind things.She slipped a piece of mince pie for him to eat and a copy of Wizzo Skateboarder for him to eat.

Michelle — December 26, 2010 i think this poem is in the middles aidan — January 22, 2011 i have this poem in my diary lawrence — January 23, 2011 I like The owl and the pussy-cat because it rhymes and it’s got animals in it. Rosa — March 1, 2011 I am 73 years and I am teaching it to my grandchildren.I have taught it to many children. Great imagination.I love it. Matteo — March 2, 2011 Hey Bertie.Can you find some more poem. Tyler — April 3, 2011 I fell in love with it the first time i read it san begho — April 29, 2011 IT IS A GREAT POEM san begho — April 29, 2011 I first heard it as a young mother and sang it to my children many, many times. I had forgotten it until I heard some excerps this morning on an old movie played on TCM. I just had to stop and look it up.

Thanks Nell — May 9, 2011 We think that this story was unusual and we enjoyed it throughly thankyou Senior class — May 18, 2011 Dear Senior School, ‘The Owl and The Pussy Cat’ is full of interesting verse language ‘The Bong Tree’, ‘ The Piggy Wig Tree’ and the ‘Runcible Spoon’. in the three verse stanza’s. Lewis Carroll, a contemporary verse poet of Edward Lear, also wrote nonce poems in ‘Alice In Wonderland’, that you may enjoy, including: ‘The Mouses Tale, Chapter 9. Lewis Carroll coined his invented words of nonce as Lexicon. You may find this Storynory PCR on Lexicon interesting: Both poets has the intention of reading there poems out loud and the onomatopoeic quality of the nonce words call for them to be read out loud. You may also find useful Storynory PCR: Where you will find other Victorian verse poets of using a similar verse style Thanks for listening to Storynory Audio poems.

Bye Bye The Owl & the Pussycat « My Daily Blog — July 1, 2011 Went shopping yesturday and came across the owl and pussycat wall stickers and bounting for my new granddaughters nurseryroom. It bought back so many of my childhood memories. I dearly would love to buy a book or music to celebrate this very special occassion.Could you possibily find a shop in which l could purchase either. Thanking you. I live in Melbourne southeastern. ann — July 11, 2011 this poem is worth reading.enjoyed it. appreciated. Hello Thank you for your comment, The Owl and the Pussy Cat who went to Sea in a beautiful Pea Green boat is a tale,starts with the owl who sings to the pussycat in the boat underneath the stars an the moon. The author Edward Lear wrote in nonce verse and this poem is similar to the Table & The Chair, where there is a conversation between the two characters.

‘ said thr tae to the chair ‘ if we take a little walk we might have little talk’ and this is what sends them walking Slowly down to the town, You will find this poem and also The Jumbilies on Storynory and as an RSS feed: poems@Storynory.com Thanks for listening N* Natasha — July 15, 2011 This book is one of my altime favs. it is a great book and i know it off by heart, i have loved it ever since i first brought it about 7 or 8 years ago. Elena — July 16, 2011 This is one of my all time favs. I don’t think it’s nonsense i love it. I know it off by heart and i still read it now after i have had it for like 7 or 8 years. i read it every day i love it sooooo much!!!!!!

Eleanor — July 17, 2011 o my gosh it so pretty hahaha i want it i memorize it always o my gosh hahaha brianna — August 27, 2011 Hello This is a very lyrical rhyme by the poet Edward. Even though it is a spoken poem it has a musical quality to it, and this will help you remember it if you read it out loud. Thanks for listening N* Natasha — August 27, 2011 […] Get off that pea-green boat right now, because bong trees don’t exist and owls n’ pussycats ain’t compatible. […] i ike this poem very much. d — April 12, 2012 Hello This is a wonderful lyric poem written by Edward Lear. He is a non sense verse writer of the Victoria era who also wrote The Jumbelies that you can listen to on Storynory.com Thanks for listening i lick this poem it delisouia mario — February 12, 2013 Hello! I really loved the poem so much, I could read it every day.

I have had such a fun time acting it out with my friends at school. From Miss G Miss G — March 11, 2013 HIS ONE HAS HELD ON FOR NEARLY SIXTY YEARS. AS FAR BACK AS WE RECALL, MY BROTHER, CHARLIE AND I, CAN STILL HEAR OUR BEAUTIFUL BRITISH MOM READING “THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT”. EVEN NOW, BETWEEN US, WORD FOR WORD, “ACCENT” INCLUDED, WE’RE ABLE TO RECITE IT! WONDERFUL STORY! WONDERFUL CHILDHOOD! WE NEVER REALLY “GOT” THE “RUNCIBLE SPOON” DEAL, WHICH MADE IT EVEN MORE FASCINATING! I’M SITTING HERE, NOW, SMILING…. NICE! Lovely!

I think I might use this when I teach my kids English 🙂 Recep — April 23, 2013 Nice one I loved it becauce it was romantic PLZ make some more i want replay laura — July 21, 2013 My cousins and I had this poem read to us by our mothers when we were younger every night before bed, and when we were listening to it now, we all started to recite along with Natasha! Thank you guys for putting up classics on StoryNory! Eunice M. i like the owl and the pussy cat i learnt about it i school casey — August 25, 2013 why I love it so much that I keep on waching it and reading it………….. Edward Lear - Poet | Academy of American Poets Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets.

For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization. browse poems & poets Victorian The British poet and painter known for his absurd wit, Edward Lear was born on May 12, 1812 and began his career as an artist at age 15. His father, a stockbroker of Danish origins, was sent to debtor's prison when Lear was thirteen and the young Lear was forced to earn a living. Lear quickly gained recognition for his work and in 1832 was hired by the London Zoological Society to execute illustrations of birds. In the same year, the Earl of Derby invited Lear to reside at his estate; Lear ended up staying on until 1836. His first book of poems, A Book of Nonsense (1846) was composed for the grandchildren of the Derby household.

Around 1836 Lear decided to devote himself exclusively to landscape painting (although he continued to compose light verse). Between 1837 and 1847 Lear traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia. After his return to England, Lear's travel journals were published in several volumes as The Illustrated Travels of a Landscape Painter. Popular and respected in his day, Lear's travel books have largely been ignored in the twentieth century. Rather, Lear is remembered for his humorous poems, such as "The Owl and the Pussycat," and as the creator of the form and meter of the modern limerick. Like his younger peer Lewis Carroll, Lear wrote many deeply fantastical poems about imaginary creatures, such as "The Dong with the Luminous Nose." His books of humorous verse also include Nonsense Songs (1871) and Laughable Lyrics (1877). Lear died on January 29, 1888 at the age of 76.

Although the subject and form of his works varies greatly, all of Lear's poems can be characterized by his irreverent view of the world; Lear poked fun at everything, including himself in "By Way of a Preface." Many critics view Lear's devotion to the ridiculous as a method for dealing with or undermining the all-pervasive orderliness and industriousness of Victorian society. Regardless of impetus, the humor of Lear's poems has proved irrefutably timeless. by this poet Poetry Daily Prose Feature - Kay Harel: A Natural History of "The Owl and the Pussycat" With a ring at the end of his nose. "Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will." So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the Hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, the moon, They danced by the light of the moon. This poem is a meme.

Maybe not as ubiquitous as "Kilroy was here" but neither is it as ephemeral as this morning's trending hash tag. Edward Lear's ditty has propagated more like the face painted by Edvard Munch in "The Scream," an image that began life as an artwork in nineteenth-century Norway and evolved in twentieth-century North America into an icky Halloween mask. Shock begot schlock. But the musicians, dancers, performance artists, illustrators, and others who have adapted "The Owl and the Pussycat" comprise a who's who of the highbrow, their every act of creative worship another mutation. And yes, the title has spread in the commercial realm, taken up by gourmet bakers, wedding photographers, luxe bath-product enterprises, a pet-therapy center and a body-piercing shop, a dance school and a vintage-clothing store, etc. There is the eponymous 1970 Hollywood romantic comedy, the poster for which was still being sold in 2015 by Wal-mart.

When newlyweds Leticia Lacativa and David Fleischman hiked the 2,144 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 1991, they selected Owl and Pussycat as their "trail names," official pseudonyms for registering at trail shelters on cold nights. So when the Owl and the Pussycat went to sea, they began a journey of three centuries and counting, morphing and relaying messages and staying alive. Why? What is the secret of this poem's appeal? Whence its omnipresence? "The Owl and the Pussycat" is one of those "accurate songs" requested by a poet of incontrovertible gravitas, Wallace Stevens, in a masterpiece of his own, "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction." Edward Lear (1812-1888) was an accurate man. He not only wrote whimsy with perfect pitch, but earned income as a natural-history illustrator and landscape artist, his eye admired by Charles Darwin and John J. Audubon. In 1830, the London Zoo gave Lear a unique permit to enter cages, where he studied, drew, and communed with representatives of many species.

The hand-colored lithographs of parrots he made during the early 1830s are breathtaking in detail and delicacy. In 2012, the British monthly The Scientist marked the bicentennial of Lear's birth, lauding "his stunningly accurate scientific illustrations." The magazine paid obeisance to "The Owl and the Pussycat," printing its first verse and an accompanying sketch Lear drew. The drawing is more cartoon than textbook. Nor do Owl and Pussycat behave realistically. The accuracy is in the precision with which Lear steers the story clear of every rocky romantic obstacle he crashed into. "The Owl and the Pussycat" is an idyll of alliance because the two avoid Lear's every quandary about intimacy, quandaries familiar to those of us who navigate humankind to find a beloved and constant companion, but too big for Edward Lear to circumvent. Owl and Pussycat float in an easy love Lear wished for, an easy love for all time. Millions have swooned as Owl and Pussycat danced by the light of the moon. The extreme romance might hint that Lear was too romantic to manage marriage.

Edward Lear lived and died a bachelor, a frail and isolated expat, a romantically challenged misanthrope deeply attached to his cat. Lear never courted nor attained union with a human. In his voluminous diaries and letters, Lear was forever pining after lost male friends and elusive women. Lear's biographers have opined that he felt too poor to wed, too ugly, too peripatetic—he was a nomadic artist, always moving on so as to sell to the English upper crust. Or he was too ill with epilepsy and shamed by his symptoms, too conflicted in his feelings for men, too scarred by his mother's relinquishing him to the care of his eldest sister when he was four years old. No one knows, but as George Orwell quipped in 1945 in an article on nonsense poetry, "It is easy to guess that there was something seriously wrong with his sex life." It nevertheless produced this hosanna, "The Owl and the Pussycat," Lear's dearest brainchild. The Proposal: Tongue-tied Versus Tacit While Lear was painting a travelogue in Greece, a monastery prompted him to write to his sister, "I am positive that ...

banishing all women whom God has made to be our equals and companions ... I say this is falsehood." Lear admired several women in his letters, but never acted on any attractions, writing in 1839 to his friend, the printer John Gould, "1 anticipate firmly the chance of a Mrs. Lear in 40 years hence at least." That proved too optimistic a projection. To propose or not to propose was an epic question for Edward Lear. He vacillated for twenty-two years about whether he should propose to Augusta Bethell, a children's book writer. Lear came to the brink twice. When he first tried to muster his nerve at age fifty-four, he had already mulled over the matter in his diary for three years. Then he consulted mutual acquaintances. One confidante, Countess Frances Waldegrave, discouraged him, citing his hand-to-mouth existence. Lear also sought the opinion of Augusta's sister, Emma. No record of this conversation exists.

But afterwards, Lear ceased his consultations, hewed to the status quo with Augusta, and moped in his diary that he must "accept a lonely destiny." Three months later, in December of 1867, "The Owl and the Pussycat" emerged, escaping that destiny in a beautiful pea-green boat. Wallace Stevens might have remarked, again as he does in "Notes," that "Life's nonsense pierces us with strange relation." The interspecies love story was a gift Lear gave to a very young girl, Janet Symonds. Her father, a prominent Englishman, Arthur Symonds, had invited Lear to join his family's Christmas festivities. Symonds, Lear, and assorted aristocrats were wintering in Cannes, France. Even the birthplace of the poem has legendary beauty. Possessing a painter's eyes, Lear was always susceptible to such sights. Did Janet Symonds notice that "The Owl and the Pussycat" lacks a proposal? That no male is seen bending his knee, braving what Lear fled?

No one utters a high-stakes request; rather Pussycat speaks of marriage as one step in a logical sequence: "O, let us be married, too long we have tarried / But what shall we do for a ring?" No one risks rejection and no one rejects. Assent goes without saying. Owl and Pussycat glide through the difficult shoals of becoming united in a veritable love boat. When the poem begins, the two are already one, even provisioning themselves with some honey and plenty of money. A stable victual, honey, practical if you are to sail away for a year and a day. What a wish-fulfillment too for our suitor manqué, a man who turned pea-green in boats no matter how beautiful: the ease of knowing your beloved loves you, of being alone together in the big wide world of two. The poem begins with a "we," Lear's desideratum. The quandary of proposing is nowhere on the horizon. The poem is romantic without this chick-flick staple. But the question Lear never popped dogged him in perpetuity.

He has a legacy as a romantic wreck, portrayed by the fiction writer Donald Bartheleme, who published "The Death of Edward Lear" in The New Yorker in 1971. Bartheleme gives us a fantasy in which Lear invites friends to observe his death. Holding court from his deathbed, "He then startled his guests with a question, uttered in a kind of shriek: "Should I get married? Get married? Should I marry?'" In these words, you can see the Learian repetition and hear his roll-along prosody. You can sense the next lines burbling on past the words, there between your ear and your memory: ba-da DUM ba-da BUM ba-da BEE. Natural Antagonists Owl and Pussycat seem a match made in heaven, with much in common. Both are nocturnal and hunters. Both were dear to Lear, who doodled self-portraits as an Owl, and kept cats notwithstanding his gypsy life. Lear's other couples in Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets live happily-ever-after lives, namely, Duck and Kangaroo, and Nutcrackers and Sugar-tongs.

If Owl and Pussycat, as bird and cat, are natural antagonists, perhaps we have a case of opposites attracting, of enemies in a love story. They have overcome irreconcilable differences that do not bedevil two utensils who live together in fancy houses and work side by side. The love of Owl and Pussycat transcends biology. They are triumphant. Yet this is a nonsense poem after all. And with the illustrations that Lear prepared for his book, he tells a contradictory tale. Lear is reputed among scientists for portraying realistic stances of fauna. That skill informs his slapstick drawings. Via the postures and facial expressions of Owl and Pussycat, Lear delineates not a blithe romance but a mythological battle of the sexes. The first sketch shows our lovebirds in their boat: Owl is strumming the guitar, Pussy captaining the tiller. Owl looks up to the stars above, but with a crabby expression. Owl's eyes are upcast in a sarcastic roll. Pussycat's eyes are on Owl, and they are fierce slits.

In the second sketch, Owl and Pussycat meet the Piggy-wig with a ring at the end of his nose. Pussycat looms above Owl, threatening, front paws like pillars, chest puffed up, and ears tucked back—signaling a readiness to attack. Owl is bowing low as a crow, cowed, eyes sheepish. The third sketch shows the couple and the turkey, Pussycat facing Owl in a pre-pounce crouch, while Owl offers the ring timidly under a huddled wing. The drawings narrate the aftermath when a lascivious pussy—yes, today's slang meaning was current—captures a reclusive bird with the velvet paws and sharp claws of sex. With these drawings depicting coercion, when Pussycat says, "Oh, let us be married; too long we have tarried," she seems to be a woman deflowered, perhaps pregnant, dragging Owl to the altar, a sacrifice to honor. Why did Lear depict this sordid fairy tale in his book? Why did he not choose, as he did in doodles for friends, to draw Owl and Pussycat hand in hand on the edge of the sand?

Owl and Pussycat yearning toward one another across the deck of a boat? A tall Owl conducting business mensch to mensch with Piggy-wig, a small Pussycat one demure step behind? Perhaps Lear presented this fall in propriety as a pratfall to amuse adults, a nod and a wink about tarrying. Yet some people could not read the animals' body language: several publishers featured the sketch of Pussycat poised to maul as a frontispiece in the book. No matter Lear's reason, these sketches show a man aware of the cliché of womankind who tempts, seduces, and traps a provider. Did Lear fear this harpy? Is he saying that men and women are as alien to one another as birds and cats? We can not know. But myths of gender have stymied many shy souls desperately seeking soulmates. Nonsensical quandaries, but there you have it. The Curious Case of the Missing Pronouns The humble pronoun provides a provocative hint as to whether Lear feared women, preferred men, or was deeply leery of intimacy.

Among the 221 words in this poem, not a he, she, him, her, his nor hers is attached to Owl or Pussycat. Only Piggy-wig has a gender ("his nose"). Were they sexless because Lear chose a Victorian sexlessness for a child's poem, or because sexual orientation was—according to several biographers—another of Lear's quandaries? Without pronouns, we guess at gender based on human stereotype, including a two-gender system: Owl is male because serenading is a man's prerogative in this cultural context; Pussycat is female because she is serenadee. If we posit Owl as male, we might note that not only did Lear dash off the odd self-portrait of himself as an owl, he was as solitary as any night bird. One biographer commented that as an illustrator, Lear "was at his best when he was drawing majestic unpretty birds like ravens and owls" and speculated that Lear "found a common bond with the birds." And Lear adored cats. With gender so sorted and Owl a projection of Lear, Pussycat usurps the male role when she takes matters into her own paws.

She spares Owl the task. If Augusta had proposed, she and Lear might have married. She had a nice dowry and no need of a rich man, she harbored a life-long fondness for Lear, she had already endured stigma as an old maid when Lear first considered a bid for her hand, and she later married a man whose health problems were worse than Lear's and who left her a widow in time for Lear to again agonize over proposing. It was spring, 1886. Lear was seventy-four, Gussie forty-eight. He asked her to visit him in San Remo, Italy, and told his diary that he was "perplexed" about making his move. Gussie spent an afternoon "decidedly showing how much she cared for me," yet he next wrote a non sequitur: "This I think was the day of the death of all hope." Whatever turned Lear from her obvious willingness to his failure to launch, his silence seems proof that Lear could not bring himself to marry. We might also take Lear at his word, or rather, his disregard of gendered words, which enables him to avoid committing to male or female.

Because while Lear wrote of the virtues of heterosexual marriage, he also wrote, to his dearest female friend Emily Tennyson—wife of the poet—about passionate feelings for two men, Chichester Fortescue and Frank Lushington. This is a history; I did not invent those names. Biographers have no hard evidence of whether Lear was turned on by men, women, both, or neither. If he had love affairs with these two men or others, we do not know. It is possible that his beloveds were bisexual and discreetly having homosexual relationships. It is also possible that Lear's sexuality was caged by norms, or unrequited, or rebuffed, or terra incognita. It is also possible that he was heterosexual and terrified of intimacy. Yet his complaints of unequal love to these men, to his friends, and in his diaries, indicate that neither was willing to meet Lear on Lear's terms. To impose gender on Owl and Pussycat is to deprive Lear of a freedom. Lear waves the magic wand of poetry and disappears familiar sexual markers. His language spares his characters the agony of choosing a partner of one sex or the other.

He does not force Owl and Pussycat into sex-typical roles. Owl and Pussycat lack clear gender identities. Now that is queer. And Lear? The only woman he considered marrying, Gussie, he met when she was a child. That is how a man unsure about women might find a wife: she may be a woman in the flesh, but his mind's eye can always see the girl she was. There is queerness there too. When Lear strips Owl and Pussycat of gender, he dresses them in an Edenic innocence that is among the poem's charms. The two are androgynous or ambiguous—in either case, we must add an A at the end of LGBTQI. Owl and Pussycat might be reborn today as our new It couple. Escape from the Insidious "They" If they are hipsters, Owl and Pussycat still attend to society's niceties. They are hitching up. And they secure a traditional symbol. But rings through the noses of livestock shout of oppression, as-the least tug on the ring inflicts pain. Not a pretty association.

Owl and Pussycat also engage the services of an officiant, albeit of a species known for stupidity—and we know Lear knew his birds. Lear trounces the proprieties, returning a favor perhaps. Edward Lear was born to a working-class family, the twentieth of twenty-one children delivered by his mother. Lear learned to write and draw by the grace of his sister, who raised him after poverty shattered the family home. As a teen, Lear sold drawings on the streets of London to bring home money. With talent and luck, he rose high in the country's caste system. Lear was cherished on the grandest estates as a hilarious houseguest, sure of dinners with British dilettantes and colonialists in any foreign capital, and at times so flooded by social invitations he could not accept them all. In 1846, he tutored Queen Victoria. Lear made cartoons of the snubs he endured from snobs, and retold egregious insults with brio. His aplomb was superficial. His letters show that Lear felt himself a misfit if not an outcast, at least because of his "plebian" origins and likely too because of his epilepsy, which connoted madness.

He lived outside his country's mainland and social structure for most of his life. The poet W. H. Auden in his eponymous tribute figured Lear as a refugee: "The legions of cruel inquisitive They / Were so many and big like dogs." One scholarly investigation into Lear's limericks likewise found that "They"—a pronoun referencing what we might call the neighbors—harmed Lear's eccentric protagonists in dreadful ways. As Lear aged, the tables turned: his heroes and heroines learned to dismiss narrow-minded judgments. We do not know if Lear did as well, but he certainly avoided them by relocating. So of course the man who shunned Society spirited away his beloved Owl and Pussycat to a land far from the madding crowd. No colonialists are trying to "civilise" the land where the bong-tree grows. No lords are pontificating on the morality of art and whether the turkey who lives on the hill is a fit subject for a portrait. No one who is anyone is there to cluck over the fact that the newlyweds did not eat champagne and cake off silver plate but dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon.

Not proper, but this couple eloped—no seating charts for them, just sea charts. They are gloriously free. Lear was well-traveled and saw many cultures throughout southern Europe, across the Fertile Crescent, and as far as India. He knew he had options for intimate companionship. In a riff in a letter to Fortescue in 1860, Lear scribbled: "Bother all painting, I wish I'd 200 per annum! Wouldn't I sell all my colors and brushes and damnable messes! Over the world I should rove, North South East & West, I would—Marrying a black girl at last, & slowly preparing to walk into Paradise." What tantalized him here must remain a tantalizing mystery, though this vision was also too much for Lear, who seems not to have enacted this desire. What Lear obviously did desire was freedom from the norms of Great Britain. Freedom and Fame This poem is full of freedoms. Owl and Pussycat unite, despite the dangers of rejection, above the battle of the sexes, without the complexities of multivalent sexuality, and outside social strictures.

The easy love of "The Owl and the Pussycat" sparkles against the sad fate of the queer Edward Lear. Queer, as in the poetic self-caricature he wrote with a friend late in life. "Some think him ill-tempered and queer," they rhyme his name in "How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear," then go on to attest that "He weeps by the side of the ocean / He weeps on the top of the hill." This sad sack indulges in retail therapy, comfort food, and other panaceas, buying "pancakes and lotion," "chocolate shrimps" (an actual species), and "a great deal of Marsala." We hear too that "Long ago he was one of the singers / But now he is one of the dumbs." As surely as "The Owl and the Pussycat" assuaged the everlasting anguish that struck Lear dumb, its balm continues to soothe the lover who has risked pride or lacked confidence, the child beset by arbitrary definitions of sexuality, the nonconformist who can not endure the normative.

Lear's poem entices too, with its swept-away romances, instant intimacy, telepathic camaraderie, and a passion so big it must hide or spark scandal. This love story is a perfect storm of freedoms, victories, and riches, complete with a flawless get-away. It is perfect. "The Owl and the Pussycat" is a magnum opus of nonsense, with a charisma all its own and a good meme's prodigious fecundity. "The Owl and the Pussycat" has inspired compositions by musical giants Igor Stravinsky, Virgil Thomson, Edwin Roxburgh, and Laurie Anderson. The avant-garde dancer Martha Graham created a homage that premiered in 1978. Her lead dancers strike poses she copied from Lear's drawings. The haute couture designer Halston created Graham's costumes, and during initial performances, cultural grandees such as Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley and Hollywood legend Liza Minelli played the role of the on-stage narrator, demonstrating yet again Lear's allure for all sorts of glitterati.

In the summer of 2012, England's Royal Opera House staged a version on London's waterways, the libretto by comedian Terry Jones, previously of Monty Python. Hundreds of visual artists have covered the poem, illustrating children's books, creating fine-art lithographs, uploading endless handcrafted and high-tech graphics on YouTube. In 2014, a poll in Britain found that "The Owl and the Pussycat" was the country's most popular children's poem, surpassing Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." Where else has "The Owl and the Pussycat" found a niche? A small sampler: The poem is ensconced in full in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and anthologized by writers including W. H. Auden, Louise Bogan, Ogden Nash, Russell Baker, and Louis Untermeyer. New York City's august Pierpont Morgan Library holds a fair copy of Lear's of excellent provenance, being the one Lear made for his heartthrob, Chichester Fortescue.

The New York Public Library's mothership collection contains over one hundred books, artworks, scores, and performances captured in various audio, film, typewritten, and video formats spawned by "The Owl and the Pussycat." On the Internet is a site presenting the poem in more than one hundred and twenty translations ( including Azerbaijani, Khmer, Lakota, Latin, Morse Code, and Zulu. The collection includes recitations—Cornish, Persian, Serbian, and Vietnamese are among the options. Even when a translation's syllables wildly outnumber the English, the poem's singsong quality thrums along with supernatural power. Lacking on the site as yet is a translation into J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish language, Sindarin, but we might read the poem in Klingon, an artificial language familiar to Star Trek fans. Publishers have offered the poem in pop-up books at least three times. Imagine Lear's delight at how what should be flat flouts the rule and springs at your face. I do not imagine that any poem by Wallace Stevens or William Shakespeare has had the honor of being mass produced in cardboard cut-out to tickle a child's sense of the possible.

One Lear biographer claims that Lear established "a new literary genre" while another has dubbed him the "King of Nonsense." In his tribute to Lear, W. H. Auden noted that "He became a land," a transmutation as surreal as in any Lear limerick. In his own land then, King Lear makes the rules and nonsense reigns. In 2012, novelist Sam Munson surmised that no reader of this nonsense "has ever rid himself of the pain that reading Lear induces." So with its natural history in mind—born of that sad clown Lear, progeny thriving across cultures, countries, and centuries—look again at this poem. Wallace Stevens might call it a supreme fiction. Look at Owl and Pussycat hand in hand on the edge of the sand. How charmingly sweet they swing. Their joy effervesces, like cresting waves. In the dark under their feet, each grain of sand is alone. Above, they dance by the light of the moon. Love is easy. What nonsense you spout, Mr. Lear. * * * About the Author Kay Harel lives in New York City with companions of several species. All speak a lingua franca.

Harel likes to practice her English. The Owl and the Pussycat | Penguin Books Australia The Owl and the Pussycat Edward Lear Edward Lear's nonsense poem about two unlikely sweethearts-an elegant owl and a beautiful cat-has found a perfect match in artist Jan Brett. She traveled to the Caribbean (the land where the Bong-tree grows, perhaps?) to research her illustrations as well as the settings, costume details, plants, and fish native to the area. Readers can follow an illustrated subplot of two yellow fish who also fall in love under the pea-green boat. A charming treatment of a classic children's poem. Format & Editions

Question: Who wrote the poem The Owl and the Pussycat?
Answer: Edward Lear